When Johanna van Zweel meets William the first day of January in 1900, she doesn't intend to fall in love and certainly not with an Australian. A foreigner, an uitlander, William and his mate Eddie have come to South Africa seeking to make their fortunes in gold. With her parents away observing the Commando Law in the Orange Free State, Johanna is tasked with ensuring Eagle's Nest, the family farm in Barberton, runs smoothly and efficiently to support her brothers and sisters, each of whom is a player in the arena of a cruel war. She sees that her active duty in the war effort is to keep the farm running to provide food and horses for the commandos. She is determined to save her homeland and her kin from the imperial onslaught. William, on the other hand, pledges allegiance to the British Empire. Set in the tumultuous years of 1899 to 1902 in South Africa, this romance between Johanna and William, both on different sides of a great conflict, charts their personal, military, and political challenges. The desperate passion of Johanna and William seems an impossibility. Can their love survive as everything they believe in forces them apart?